Why Texas congressional incumbents are beating their Tea Party challengers

The Texas Tea Party Patriots want Montgomery County’s member of Congress to be a thorn in the side of the political establishment, an unwavering conservative and a leader in the fight for causes they hold dear.

So faced with a Republican primary choice between a challenger claiming Tea Party credentials and an eight-term incumbent, the Texas Tea Party Patriots chose … the incumbent.

Not that the Montgomery activists had any objections to the views of challenger Larry Youngblood, a retired economic forecaster and small business owner from Cypress. Instead, they chose to embrace embrace Rep. Kevin Brady, a veteran lawmaker from The Woodlands who has become a leading congressional spokesman for spending cuts and Federal Reserve reform.

“In this race, Mr. Youngblood is the most conservative,” the group said in its endorsement. “But Mr. Youngblood has not mounted a campaign that has a realistic chance of unseating a well-funded and liked incumbent like Mr. Brady.”

Brady’s success in cultivating Tea Party support is an indication of the lessons Texas GOP congressional incumbents have learned since the birth of the populist political movement two years.

Despite the fact that Tea Party insurgents are waging campaigns against 11 of the 22 Texas Republicans seeking re-election to their House seats, none of the incumbents appears to be in imminent danger of being unseated in the May 29 primary, Republican operatives and political analysts agree.

Rep. Pete Sessions appears on Fox News (via Yahoo News!)

Rep. Pete Sessions of Dallas, chairman of the House Republicans’ campaign committee, said he was confident that every GOP House member from Texas would survive their Tea Party challenges and “get out of it without a runoff.”

But far from dismissing the insurgent movement, Sessions said he and his GOP House colleagues are fending off possible primary challenges by embracing the views espoused by the newfound political activists. He praised the Tea Party for “actively pushing each and every one of us” to be aware of grassroots concerns and called the anti-government groups “the most influential force this election year.”

Rep. Greg Walden, an Oregon Republican active in the House GOP leadership, said the movement is “holding people who are in office accountable.”

“If you can’t respond,” he said, “then you might find yourself in trouble.”

Brady is a case study in pro-active response. He has invited Tea Party loyalists to his Washington office and he has spoken to numerous Tea Party gatherings in Texas. His multi-colored chart skewering “ObamaCare” became a favorite on Tea Party social media. And his recent legislative offensive against the Federal Reserve has won him friends in the freedom-and-liberty crowd.

The responses of Brady and other Texas House incumbents stand in sharp contrast to the dismissive attitude that contributed to longtime Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar’s landslide loss to a Tea Party-backed challenger last week.

Political analysts say there’s good reason for the stark difference in political outcomes.

“Because House members run every two years, they are less likely to grow too far out of touch than senators who have six years between running,” said Charlie Cook, editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. “Second, House members generally represent districts that are smaller and more homogeneous than entire states and they generally reflect their constituencies more than senators do.”

Another factor benefiting incumbent Texas Republicans in Congress: They are the most conservative big-state delegation in the nation, so they have cast relatively few votes that are objectionable to Tea Party activists.

“They’re already pretty far to the right,” said former Rep. Martin Frost, a longtime Democratic lawmaker from Dallas. “There’s not a lot of space over there to their right. They’ve kind of pre-empted them.”

Rep. Ralph Hall is sworn in for his latest term on Jan. 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

The Texas congressman most vulnerable to a Tea Party challenge is Rep. Ralph Hall, at age 89 the oldest lawmaker in Washington.

Tea Party loyalist Steve Clark received 30 percent against Hall two years ago and says he is “finding even more support this time.”

“Just because you don’t see people gathering around court houses with picnic baskets doesn’t mean that somehow the Tea Party is going flat,” Clark said. “The problems are worse then they were two years ago: the assault on liberties, the financial straits we find ourselves in, the debt that is just incomprehensible.”

Sessions said the Tea Party has expanded the Republican coalition by cultivating “a lot of people who are angry and energized.”

“We are getting a lot of people who are not traditionally at our Republican events,” he said. “I think it’s good for our party.”

Emily Wilkins of the Washington bureau also contributed to this report.